Episode 260: The SS Sultana disaster - Part One
Disaster Area
Disaster Area
4.2 • 839 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On a cold April night in 1865, the calm across the waters of the Mississippi River was shattered by a sudden explosion - one which destroyed a steamboat and most of the Confederate POWs crowded on its decks.
Videos:
Articles and books:
- Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History, by Alan Huffman
- Knoxville, TN: S.S. Sultana Memorial
- Appomattox Court House: The Surrender Meeting
- American Battlefield Trust: The Sultana Disaster
- The Sultana Disaster Museum
- Toledo Blade: The Sinking of the Sultana
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody. This is Jennifer Matarise, and before I get started on the episode today, I'd just like to take care of the usual housekeeping. |
| 0:07.0 | For starters, paid requests are now reopened. If you're interested in submitting a disaster request, please double-check the list of requests I most recently posted to the podcast's Facebook and Tumblr accounts to make sure your request has not already been made. |
| 0:25.3 | Also, please look through past episodes to verify I haven't already covered the disaster in question. |
| 0:31.0 | To submit a request, you can send a donation of $30 or more to the podcast PayPal at disaster area at mail.com on Venmo at Disaster Area Podcast or on Cash App at Disaster Area Pod. |
| 0:38.4 | Just add the name of the disaster to the notes on your donation. |
| 0:41.7 | If you have an idea for an episode subject but you're not sure if it qualifies, |
| 0:45.1 | feel free to message me so I can approve one way or another. |
| 0:48.9 | The subject from this particular episode was chosen by me. |
| 0:52.3 | If you'd still like to help support the podcast in another way, |
| 0:55.2 | you can do so with a one-time donation through PayPal, Venmo, or cash app, or on a per-episode |
| 1:00.0 | basis through Patreon at www.com slash disaster area podcast. A per-episode donation of even |
| 1:08.1 | as little as a dollar an episode can help me do things like pay the rent |
| 1:11.4 | and keep the lights on. And if you do join the Patreon, you will get new episodes ad free as soon as I |
| 1:16.6 | record them rather than waiting until they are released. So if you do become a patron, I would very |
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| 1:33.9 | the podcast wherever that you might listen to it. And as always, these sources for each new episode |
| 1:39.6 | can be found at disasterareapodcast.wordpress.com and in the episode description, wherever you |
| 1:45.3 | might be listening to me. The sources for this episode include the documentary Remember the |
| 1:50.1 | Sultanah, the history channel documentary on the Sultanah, the part-time explorer episode |
| 1:56.7 | on the Sultanah, an Atlas Obscura article on Sultana Memorial in Knoxville, Tennessee, the National Park |
... |
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